Merchants at Jets
Sunday’s tilt between the St. Albert Merchants and Morinville Jets is a possible playoff preview in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.Faceoff is 7:30 p.m. at Ray McDonald Sports Centre.
In the west division, the Jets (17-14-1), Edmonton Mustangs (15-16-2), Merchants (12-17-4) and Stony Plain Flyers (12-18-2) are ranked third to sixth as the teams jockey for positioning in the best-of-three qualifying round.
The Merchants (120 GF/147 GA) have five games remaining and the Jets (131 GF/112 GA) have six on tap, starting tonight against the Flyers at 8 p.m. at Glenn Hall Centennial Arena.
Friday the Jets visit the Beaumont Chiefs (22-7-2) at 8:30 p.m. before battling the Merchants for the fourth time this season. Previous results were victories for the Jets by scores of 6-3 Sept. 29 in St. Albert, 6-2 Nov. 17 in Morinville and 7-6 in overtime Dec. 14 in St. Albert.
The third win in four games for the Jets was 6-4 against the visiting Edmonton Royals (17-14-1) Sunday.
Brett Dubuc led the attack with three goals and two assists, Lee Gadoury tallied once and added four assists and Josh Mcrae scored shorthanded and on the power play during a four-point night. Connor Tuppala also added two helpers.
Dubuc leads the CJHL in scoring with 38 goals (three on the power play and three shorthanded) and 72 points in 31 games.
The Royals struck twice with the man advantage while outshooting the Jets 46-33. The winning netminder was Luke Hall (6-4, 3.44 GAA).
Mcrae’s natural hat-trick kicked off Friday’s 11-2 blowout of the Spruce Grove Regals (6-28) at Grant Fuhr Arena.
Ryan Denton notched two of the team’s three power-play goals. Dubuc also scored twice and rounding out the offensive barrage were Zach Mcrae, Jaron Coles, Jeremie Cyr and Cole Ridd’s first of the season.
Tuppala collected four assists, Dubuc had three helpers and Denton added a pair.
Shots were surprisingly even at 30 apiece and Colton Kucher (11-11, 3.39 GAA) was in net for the Jets.
The first win after two losses for the Merchants was Sunday’s 3-2 shootout decision against the Leduc Riggers (15-16-2) at Akinsdale Arena.
Noah Fayad’s first goal in seven games since joining the Merchants tied it at one in the first period and Landon Bishop’s second of the season knotted it at two with 1:19 left in the second.
The teams registered one shot apiece in the five-minute extra period as Leduc outshot the Merchants 45-44.
Josh Dechaine (3-2, 2.56 GAA) backstopped the Merchants to their third victory in six games.
The Merchants were coming off a 6-3 road loss to the Sherwood Park Knights (23-9-1) Friday as Ryan Cooper, Ryan Deets and Cole Gupta scored against the top team in the east division.
Cooper and Jack Lastwika finished with two assists apiece and Brandon Boughen (5-13, 5.00 GAA) stopped a game-high 37 shots.
Sharks stop Fury
Regan Ackroyd and Aidan Soltis scored in the shootout to cap off Saturday’s 5-4 comeback victory by the midget elite St. Albert Sharks against the host Sherwood Park Fury in the Alberta Female Hockey League.Ackroyd also forced overtime with 1:52 remaining in regulation time after Katie Charko cut the Fury’s lead to 4-3 on the power play with 5:30 to go.
Annika Neset and Libby Langenhahn lit the lamp as the first period ended tied at two.
The Fury converted power-play chances in the second and third before the Sharks fought back to record their fifth win in six games.
Marissa Steinke and Juliann Sherbeth picked up two assists apiece.
Laney Pasemko (three GA on 15 shots in 35 minutes) and Layla Hood (one GA on six shots in 25 minutes) split time in net.
The Sharks were credited with 33 shots.
The result lifted the Sharks (13-6) five points ahead of the second-place Fury (10-2-4) in the north division with three less games played.
Last year’s provincial finalists are back on the ice Saturday against the Lloydminster Steelers (6-12) at 2:30 p.m. at Mark Messier Arena.
Tuesday the Sharks face off against the Edmonton Pandas (5-9-2) at 8:30 p.m. at Go Auto Arena.
